CPU World has found more evidence that AMD's second generation of Accelerated Processing Units from AMD will launch as early as tomorrow.

New A-series processors, codenamed "Trinity", are expected to have better CPU and GPU performance than older "Llano" counterparts. The upcoming A-Series products are produced in socket FM2 form factor, incompatible with previous generation of socket FM1 motherboards, and that is one of the main drawbacks of the soon to be released accelerated units.

Official prices are unknown but the APUs were available for pre-order since beginning of September, and at this time several "Trinity" boxed SKUs are available from Amazon. Amazon is flogging three different quad-core models, priced between $120 and $149.

AMD A10-5800K is the flagship A-Series microprocessor. Amazon sells it for $144.50 with free shipping, whereas other third party sellers on the same site sell it as low as $132 with extra shipping charges. This is about what the AMD charged for the A8-3850 and A8-3870K "Llano" processors when they first shipped.

The A10-5800K will offer about 27 per cent higher CPU and 33 per cent higher GPU frequencies at the same power level. Because the new products were designed to scale better with frequency, rather than to be more efficient at the same clock speed, the actual CPU performance is expected to be lower than 27 per cent.

AMD A10-5700 is for those who want better energy efficiency. Compared to the A10-5800K, the 5700 SKU has CPU and GPU clocks reduced by 10 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Boxed version of this APU is sold by Amazon for $149.

Third APU, A8-5600K, seems to have a good compromise between performance and price, especially when better CPU performance is needed. The processor is priced at $121.55 by Amazon, and even cheaper by third-party sellers. CPU performance of this A8 part should be within five per cent of the A10-5800K.

Infinity Ward’s Creative Strategist for the Call of Duty series, or the public face of the Call of Duty franchise (none other than Robert Bowling), has announced via Twitter that he is parting ways with Infinity Ward and parent company, Activision.

Bowling issued a simple statement on Twitter that read, “Today, I resign from my position as Creative Strategist of Call of Duty, as a lead of Infinity Ward, and as an employee of Activision.” His Twitter feed provided no details or clues as to his future plans. Of course, with Bowling’s high profile within the gaming community it is believed that a number of companies could use his talents.

Activision issued a statement saying the following: “We sincerely thank Robert for his many years of service. He’s been a trusted and valued member of the Infinity Ward team. We wish him all the best on his decision to pursue future opportunities.” At least on the surface, Activision is trying to make sure it looks like a cordial split, and right now we have no information leading us to believe that it wasn’t.

Of course, we will keep digging. What we can tell you is that we have no reason yet to think that Bowling will be joining Jason West and Vince Zampella at Respawn.

Although Intel is yet to deliver the official announcement on its 7-series chipsets, Digitimes quotes sources from the market claiming that main motherboard makers are already slashing the prices.

The same sources claim that these companies initially planned to increase prices in order to compensate for growing costs of copper. However, the slowdown in growth of shipments means that price wars will be the name of the game. Naturally, we like such games.

Many manufacturers already sell their motherboards in the channel, in order to get a head start and decrease pricing of mid-range and entry-level products. These price drops are said to range from 3-10 percent and should ensure an even bigger piece of the cake for these companies.

Nanoxia is a German company founded back in 2006. It aims to provide only the best products to specific target groups of gamers, modders, overclockers and benchmarkers. The company is notable for quality fans but its offer includes other cooling, gaming and modding oriented products. Nanoxia strived for implementation of the best technologies but they develop a lot of them as well, aiming to use only the best materials available. Today, when manufacturers are looking to offer the lowest warranties possible, FX EVO fans' 10 year warranty is really something.

You'll find specs on the back. We noticed however that the specs claim the cable is a 50cm one, although our measurements revealed it’s only slightly longer than 43cm.

Nanoxia’s earlier series came only with Vibekillerbolts (anti vibration bolts) but now each fan from FX EVO series comes with four anti shock bolts and four screws. ICF „Intelligent Fan Controller“ comes only with fans that use 3-pin connectors.

The propeller is UV reactive and will glow green under UV light. As you can see, the propeller and the frame are almost transparent. The build seems to be a quality one and the fans are made of high-tech polycarbonate Makrolon made by Bayer Material Science. The frames and rotors are quite elastic, which tends to contribute to durability. Namely, it will bend if you try hard but as soon as you let go, everything will be back to normal. The used material should also keep its shape in high temperature scenarios, but we don’t think, or at least hope, that anyone’s rig will hit temperatures that would melt plastic. The finishing touches are nice and there are no sharp ledges.

For optimum cleaning, Nanoxia fans have a special axis mount that allows a detaching of fan rotor to clean it under running water. What’s particularly interesting for EF EVO fans is that they can run under water. We really wanted to test this but dipping them in an aquarium was too much of a risk, since I was afraid I’ll make minced meat out of my goldfish.

FX EVO fan uses nano technology bearing - self-lubricating, longlife composite material. This ensures longevity and is the reason behind the 10 year warranty. Note that particles larger than a nanometer cannot penetrate into the bearing and damage it.

The ECO traction allows a very smooth start and effective conversion of electrical energy into kinetic energy. The fans will start reliably with less than 4 volts and can be adapted to individual performances extremely well. IFC (Intelligent Fan Controller) that comes with the fan is a nice feature if you don’t own a fan controller. The cable from IFC to the fan is 25cm long, which, coupled with the fan’s 40cm cable, means you’ll be able to place it anywhere, regardless of the size of your case.

One side of IFC has a 3-pin male connector that goes to the motherboard, while the other side holds a emale 3-pin connector that connects to the fan. The cable is nicely sleeved and you won’t see the wires. Note that Nanoxia also makes various sleeved cables, such as 24-pin power connector extensions, which may be of interest to case modders.

As you can see, IFC goes into a spare expansion slot.

IFC has a large control wheel, which makes control much easier. Note that you’ll have to take it off when installing IFC, simply because it won’t fit through the hole. We had some trouble with this, which was quite strange since there’s no other way to install it in a case. Further inspection revealed that some glue ended up beneath the wheel, although this was not the case with the other two IFC controllers we had.

For testing we used Cooler Master 612S mounted on EVGA’s FTW3 motherboard in Corsair Obsidian 800D case (with three 900 RPM fans) at 22°C room temperature. We measured temperatures at Core i7 930’s overclocked clock (3.6GHz). In our tables, we used average temperatures of all four cores. We used GC-Extreme thermal paste for all our testing.

One part of the fan frame shows the spin direction.

Mounting the fans on our Hyper 612S went well. All you need to do is take the plastic frames that come with the fans, tighten them with screws or anti-shock grommets to the fan and strap the entire thing to the cooler.

We had a bit of trouble here as it seems that the screws we received with the FX EVO 120mm IFC 1300 RPM are really hard to screw in. Nanoxia's screw is on the picture below, on the right.

Nanoxia FX EVO 120 mm IFC ranges from 395 – 1300 RPM (+/- 10%). The voltage range is from 3.5V to 12V. For our testing, we connected the fan to a Scythe three pin fan control connector without losing the option of manual RPM control. Using FX EVO 120 mm IFC controller gave the same result but IFC does not provide information of exact fan RPM. Still, it will be quite useful to those who have no digital fan controllers. Note that we could not stop fans entirely by using IFC fan controller and the lowest it will go is the minimum of about 400 RPM.

As far as loudness goes, the FX EVO 120 mm IFC 1300 RPM is a quality fan. It's almost inaudible at about 800 RPM, but its maximum of 1300 RPM isn't very loud either. We’ve noticed that it’s only slightly louder than our recently tested FX EVO 120mm 1500PWM fan, but the difference is minute.

The fan also runs very smoothly at low speeds without any disturbing bearing noise. The fan starts immediately after turning the computer on, regardless of whether you left it at below 4 volts before you shut down.

FX EVO 120mm 1500PWM fan scored a little bit better than the FX EVO 120mm IFC 1300 RPM or the reference fan on our Hyper 612S. The reference fan is not a PWM and spins at 1300 RPM. When running at maximum RPM, both the FX's fans are slightly louder than that on the Hyper. However, FX EVO 120 mm 1500PWM will remain inaudible most of the time thanks to the PWM control, but of course you can easy regulate the speed of the FX EVO 120mm IFC 1300 RPM using the IFC controller.

Conclusion

Nanoxia FX EVO 120mm IFC 1300 RPM boasts a quality build - it uses nano bearing technology, frames and rotors are made of robust polycarbonate, smooth edges, removable propeller and a 40cm sleeved cable. Another great thing about this fan is that it comes with IFC (Intelligen Fan Controller). Nanoxia's fan has a well implemented linear control range, so that speed steps are very gentle and hardly perceptible. We’ve seen that it provides good performance without being too loud.

As far as cons go, the screws are quite hard to screw into the frame and we had some issues by removing the control wheel from the supplied IFC controller. Thankfully, it turned out to be only a bit of stray glue and an isolated case, since it wasn’t the case with our other IFC controllers. These are literally the only two cons on FX EVO 120mm IFC 1300 RPM, and luckily they’re totally unrelated to performance and quality of the fan itself.

Nanoxia FX EVO 120mm IFC 1300 RPM goes for €13.99 at pc-cooling.de, which is where we got our testing sample. Unlike the €1 cheaper FX EVO 120 mm PWM 1500 RPM, our today’s fan boasts IFC controller which provides manual RPM control. Nanoxia offers a manufacturer’s warranty of 10 years, which makes the deal even sweeter and testifies of the quality build that the company offers with its products.

A couple of days ago Nanoxia launched its new series of fans - FX EVO and our today's guest is FX EVO 120mm PWM 1500 RPM (FX12-1500PWM).

Nanoxia is a German company founded back in 2006. It aims to provide only the best products to specific target groups of gamers, modders, overclockers and benchmarkers. The company is notable for quality fans but its offer includes other coolign, gaming and modding oriented products. Nanoxia strived for implementation of the best technologies but they develop a lot of them as well, aiming to use only the best materials available. Today, when manufacturers are looking to offer the lowest warranties possible, FX EVO fans' 10 year warranty is really something.

FX EVO series holds seven different fans. Two of newly launched fans use 4-pin connectors, i.e. use PWM tech (automatic speed adjustment), whereas the rest (with 3-pin connectors) use the supplied IFC - "Intelligent Fan Controller"Back of the box shows a diagram that details the fan's response to voltage increases. In this case we see a linear curve, which means that the FX EVO 120mm PWM has good scalability for a wide operation range.

You'll find specs on the back. We noticed however that the specs claim the cable is a 50cm one, although our measurements revealed it’s only slightly longer than 43cm.

Each fan from FX EVO series comes with four anti shock bolts, four screws and a 10 year warranty. ICF „Intelligent Fan Controller“ can be found with the 3-pin connectors. As you can see, Nanoxia stuck to the green color of rotors.

The fans of the Nanoxia FX EVO series are manufactured according to the latest standards and with knowledge of the latest developments in science and technology. Frames and rotors of the Nanoxia fans are made by the high-tech polycarbonate Makrolon made by Bayer Material Science. The proven material allows the fabrication of very lightweight, unbreakable and extremely robust components.

For optimum cleaning, Nanoxia fans have a special axis mount that allows a detaching of fan rotor to clean it under running water.

The nanotechnology material allows the fabrication of solid bearing with minimal abrasion. Nanoxia rotors are balanced and tested to a tolerance of less than 0.2mm. The ECO traction allows a very smooth start and effective conversion of electrical energy into kinetic energy. The fans will start reliably with less than 4 volts and can be adapted to individual performances extremely well.

For testing we used Cooler Master 612S mounted on EVGA’s FTW3 motherboard in Corsair Obsidian 800D case (with three 900rpm fans) at 22°C room temperature. We measured temperatures at Core i7 930’s overclocked clock (3.6GHz). In our tables, we used average temperatures of all four cores. We used GC-Extreme thermal paste for all our testing.

Hyper 612S comes with one fan (A12025-13CB-3BN-F1, DC12V, 0.16A). The fan rpm can be decreased from 1300 rpm to 900 rpm with the adapter. The fan uses the 3-pin connector. As far as airflow noise goes, the fan is among the quieter we’ve tested thus far. In fact, when running at 900 rpm, you won’t hear airflow, but the fan engine produces a slight buzzing sound. Static pressure is 1.14 mmH2O (0.55 mmH2O @900rpm).

Mounting the fans on our Hyper 612S went well. All you need to do is take the plastic frames that come with the fans, tighten them with screws or anti-shock grommets to the FX12-1500PWM fan and strap the entire thing to the cooler.

We had a bit of trouble here as it seems that the screws we received with the FX12-1500PWM are really hard to screw in. Nanoxia's screw is on the picture below, on the right.

Nanoxia FX12-1500PWM comes with PWM technology and features a 4-pin connector. The fan rpm ranges from 500 – 1500 rpm (+/- 10%). We measured a maximum of 1470rpm and minimum of 470rpm.

The FX12-1500PWM fan electronically adjusts the engine's power according to the requirements. The PWM control of Nanoxia fans has a very linear control range, in order to make speed steps very gentle and hardly perceptible.

The voltage range is from 3.5V to 12V. For our testing, we connected the FX12-1500PWM to a Scythe three pin fan control connector without losing the option of manual rpm control. FX12-1500PWM ran very well in manual control mode as well as the automatic control on our motherboard, ultimately resulting in identical scores in both tests.

As far as loudness goes, the FX12-1500PWM is a quality fan. It's almost inaudible at about 1000prm, but its maximum of 1500rpm isn't very loud either and although you'll hear it, it isn't much different from other fans in the case.

The fan also runs very smoothly at low speeds without any disturbing bearing noise. The fan starts immediately after turning the computer on, regardless of whether you left it at below 4 volts before you shut down.

Our FX12-1500PWM fan scored better than the reference fan on our Hyper 612S. Note however that the reference fan is not a PWM and spins at 1300rpm. When running at maximum rpm, the FX's fan is slightly louder than that on the Hyper. However, thanks to PWM control, the FX12-1500PWM will remain inaudible most of the time.

Conclusion

Nanoxia launched its FX EVO series of fans and we tested the company's FX EVO 120mm PWM 1500 fan. Of course, the PWM in the name means that the fan supports automatic speed adjustment.

FX12-1500PWM boasts a quality build - frames and rotors are made of polycarbonate, it uses nano bearing technology, but most importantly it provides good performance without being too loud. In fact, we barely heard it until we turned on some CPU intensive tests. Nanoxia's fan has a well implemented linear control range, so that speed steps are very gentle and hardly perceptible. FX12-1500PWM fan would be a very good addition to your CPU cooler, seeing as how it has a 4-pin connector, i.e. PWM control. The fan is easy to maintain, as it is insensitive to enviroment influences such as water, dust or sand. The impeller can be removed and washed. Note that particles larger than a nanometer cannot penetrate into the bearing and damage it.

Nanoxia's web site is currently closed for maintenance, but their products can be found at pc-cooling.de, which at the same time offers support for Nanoxia products. Apart from the FX EVO series, Nanoxia launched a couple of other products recently. Among them you'll find the PWMX module, which allows for control of 3-pin fans via PWM signal. We'll soon review this module and a few more FX EVO series fans so stay tuned.

FX12-1500PWM can be found priced at €12, here, which includes a nice 10 year warranty.

It seems now that recent speculation that the new main System on a Chip (SoC) for the Next Xbox (or Xbox 720, if you like) began production is apparently accurate; the SoC did indeed start production in late December of 2011. Sources tell us that the code name for the chip is Oban, and it is being produced by both IBM and Global Foundries for Microsoft.

If speculation is correct, which our sources believe it is, the power behind the next Xbox will be a PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU, or modified 7000 series. Continued rumors of an x86 compatible CPU seem to be bunk, just based on where the chip is being fab’d.

This first run of these 32nm Oban chips will be destined for developer consoles, so any hope for a holiday console release in 2012 seems unrealistic, according to our sources, but an announcement perhaps before the end of the year might be possible. It would seem Microsoft’s strategy of getting it in 2013 is all but assured. We do think that the chips will be in production by the end of the year for consoles destined to be sold in 2013, which seems to agree with what others are saying.

There are still many unknowns, but those in the development community seem to be clued in at least a high level. From the shadows we hear whispers of expecting development kits as early as March, but more than likely April, if all goes well.

While we expect these development kits to shed some light on what Microsoft will be doing with the Next Xbox/720, it is very likely that we will see at least couple of revisions before everything is settled as they get closer to an actual production unit.

Intel has leaked details of its upcoming 7-series motherboards in some of its marketing materials. The boards will be in the shops in March next year.

According to VR-Zone the first one will be the DZ77RE (which is codenamed Road's End) which will be a higher-end model than the current DZ68BC, possibility with Thunderbolt support. It will be cheaper than the DZ77GA (Gaspar) which will come out at the same time. Both models should feature what Intel calls Max-OC, which will make them overclockable.

There will also be a Media series of motherboards. One wll be the DZ77BH (Blue Hills) and this alongside the DZ75SL (Spur Lake). They will have overclocking support. The DZ77BH has dual x8 slots for Crossfire or SLI.

Then there is the DH77SD (Sundale) which is an mATX model with a pair of mini PCIE Express slots. One of them looks like it has a mSATA slot for SSD caching. Then there is the DH77DF (Dry Fork) which is Intel's only mini-ITX consumer 7-series board. It also has a mini PCI Express slot, probably for mSATA support.

The DH77KC (Knoll Creek) which is an ATX board, again with a mini PCI Express slot an mSATA support, just like its mATX sibling the DH77EB (EB lake). The H77 models appear to be shipping with DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort.

There are is also motherboards for the corporate market. Dubbed executive there is the DQ77MK (Moccasin Peak) which is a mATX board with USB 3.0 support and dual Ethernet. There is the thin mini-ITX DQ77KB (Kearnens Bend) which also has USB 3.0. Finally there is the DB75EN (Elkhorn Creek) which is another mATX board with USB 3.0 connectivity.

Gigabyte has launched its latest series of motherboards supporting the new AMD A75 series chipsets and the latest AMD A-Series APUs or Llano. Gigabyte A75 based motherboards offer DIY PC builders and integrators a new world of 3D and multimedia performance with the most scalable, and best value upgrade path imaginable.

Henry Kao, VP of Worldwide Service and Marketing at Gigabyte said that the new boards were new and exciting as AMD new APU's were “ground breaking” APU technology. As well as bringing AMD A-Series technology to DIY users who demand excellent gaming and multimedia performance on a budget, these motherboards also offer a compelling upgrade path that includes Dual Graphics configurations, he said.

Gigabyte A75 series boards features an AMD A75 ‘Hudson’ chipset supporting the latest 32 nanometer AMD A-Series APUs. These processors are the first ever to combine a DX11-capable, high performance graphics processor with a choice of a dual or quad core CPU in one silicon die, offering a 3D gaming and multimedia experience similar to a discrete graphics configuration.

All Gigabyte A75 series motherboards are part of the Gigabyte Super4 motherboard range, and as such are equipped with the very best components and a comprehensive range of unique features that guarantee flawless system stability and extended product longevity without compromising on performance, features and device connectivity.

There is no word on price yet but the model numbers are GA-A75-UD4H, GA-A75-D3H, GA-A75-DS3P, GA-A75M-UD2H, GA-A75M-D2H, GA-A75M-S2V and GA-A75N-USB3.

Intel has shared some of its plans with manufacturers and we can get a clearer picture of what will be under the hood of Chief River mobile Ivy Bridge platform. We won’t spend time explaining all the differences but we will tell you that the top of the performance market for small form factor is QS77 chipset.

In normal performance factor, where size doesn’t play a key role, the QM77 takes charge and HM77 and HM76 will take more of the mainstream market. HM75 is the cheapest and least powerful chipset with some options cut off and all of them are scheduled for aligned launch with Ivy Bridge in March / April 2012.

At this time we don’t have more information other than names but, as usual, stay tuned.

Sony has today announced that three new SD memory card series will be coming soon.

First up there is an entry-level Essential Series, a budget focused Experience Series and the speed-oriented Expert Series. All the Sony memory cards will be shipped as of January 2011 in a new eco-friendly package which hopefully does not require a chainsaw to open and a five year warranty.

The Essential Series will be made up of Class 4-rated 2GB, 4GB and 8GB models while the Experience Series will have Class 4-rated 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB card capable of transfer speeds topping 15 MB/s.

The Expert Series will have a 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models with Class 10 ratings that deliver speeds of 22 MB/s. No word on pricing yet.

Sony also tells us that it will release two bits of free software with the Experience and Expert series cards. There is the "File Rescue HD" and "x-Pict Story", which will be offered for free to buyers of the Experience and Expert series memory cards.

The File Rescue HD software will help you retrieve accidentally deleted or damaged files. The x-Pict Story creates presentations using photos and videos that you will capture.